In Riumshyn case, none of military personnel who went to AWOL were interrogated, - lawyer Yosypov
In the case files concerning the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Dmytro Riumshyn, who is suspected of mass AWOLs by brigade fighters and covering up such cases, not a single soldier who deserted was questioned.
This was stated in an interview with Censor.NET by his lawyer, Andrii Yosypov.
"I have not seen any interrogation of such persons in the criminal proceedings. But I am convinced that none of them have been interrogated. Although this should have been done. We will definitely raise this issue at the trial stage. We want to ask each of them: 'My dear friend, what prompted you to go AWOL? Because we are being accused that the reason for your unauthorised departure from the unit is that the SBI was not notified about your friend who left in this way. And that is what motivated you. Or was it security, combat operations, personal fears, or the fact that you went straight to Pokrovsk in a tracksuit from France?" explained the defence lawyer.
According to Yosypov, under the old suspicion, Riumshyn was also charged with allegedly failing to conduct explanatory work on criminal liability for AWOL and desertion.
"And because of this, people allegedly went AWOL. They say they did not know about Articles 407 and 408 because Riumshyn did not tell them. And this, according to the logic of the prosecution, was the reason for the AWOL. Such was the complex construction. But now it has been removed. It simply does not fit into the logic. The investigation also spoke of a direct causal link between the fact that a soldier went AWOL and the fact that he went AWOL for the reasons such as Riumshyn's failure to explain to him the responsibility for leaving the unit without permission. The investigation did not and does not consider any other circumstances that could have prompted the soldier to leave his military unit or place of service," he explained.
It was this circumstance, which was previously incriminated against Riumshyn and later rejected, that was the legal basis for imposing such a preventive measure as detention.
The defence lawyer added that the fate of the 56 soldiers who went AWOL during training in France is currently unknown.
"But I am sure that we will find out their fate in the future. I will petition the court and request that they be interrogated. The prosecution tells me that, again, because we did not respond to isolated cases of AWOL, they acted in this way. They say it was a lack of response. So I want to ask them, what prompted them to do this?" the lawyer concluded.
Read the full text of the interview with former commander of the 155th Brigade Dmytro Riumshyn and his lawyer Andrii Yosypov at the link.
The situation in the 155th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the case against its commander, Colonel Riumshyn
As a reminder, on 1 January 2025, Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yurii Butusov outlined a number of facts about the circumstances of the formation and functioning of the 155th mechanised brigade "Anna Kyivska", which entered the battle near Pokrovsk and suffered significant losses there.
According to him, the 155th Brigade faced a number of problems: 1,700 soldiers left the brigade without permission before the first battle, the brigade commander was fired immediately after the battle, and one of the brigade's leaders died of a heart attack.
Butusov conducted a lengthy investigation to find out what exactly led to the significant losses of brigade personnel and equipment and massive AWOL.
In October, the 155th Brigade left for training in France. 1924 servicemen were sent there, of whom only 51 had more than a year of military service experience, 459 had up to a year of experience, and the majority, 1414, had just enlisted and served for less than 2 months, about 150 were sent to France even without undergoing the BGMT. About 50 military brigades fled to France.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET also reports that the brigade was not provided with the necessary weapons. In particular, the brigade has not received a single drone from the state to carry out combat missions. Also, according to Butusov, there were no electronic warfare equipment. The brigade was supplied by volunteers. In addition, all the 120 mm mortar shells produced by the Ministry of Strategic Industries that were given to the brigade were defective.
On 2 January, it became known that the State Bureau of Investigation had launched an investigation into the massive AWOL in the 155th "Anna Kyivska" Brigade following media reports. In turn, the French Ministry of Defence did not comment on the information that the 155th "Anna Kyivska" Brigade, trained by the French Armed Forces, was the subject of an investigation in Ukraine.
Also in early January, the results of a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff regarding the 155th Brigade "Anna Kyivska" became known.
On 5 January, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, promised to increase the capabilities of the 155th Brigade and admitted that there were problems that needed to be addressed.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, Yurii Butusov, said that the formation of new brigades without their support was a gross mistake that was costly for the country.
On 20 January 2025, the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Riumshyn, was detained by the SSU. And on 22 January, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv imposed a bail of UAH 90 million on him.
On 6 February, the Kyiv Court of Appeal left Riumshyn in custody. The court refused to release him on bail, instead reducing the bail from UAH 90 million to UAH 50 million.
On 11 June, the court remanded Riumshyn in custody until 20 July and reduced his bail to UAH 27 million.
On 4 September, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv reduced the bail for the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Dmytro Riumshyn, from UAH 22.7 million to UAH 14.9 million.
On 11 September, the court reduced the bail to 10 million hryvnias, leaving Riumshin in custody.
